According to the newspaper El Espectador, there are 34 million hectares in Colombia used for livestock, although the Agustín Codazzi Institute has said that there are actually only 15 million hectares of land suitable for this activity. The other 18 million hectares that are currently used for grazing and cows were once native forests and are now bare mountain land. 

Seven years ago, the livestock guild joined with the World Bank and other agencies to launch the largest sustainable livestock project in the country. It chose 83 municipalities in 12 departments that fulfilled three characteristics: they are important livestock regions, they have different ecosystems and they still have a few areas with well-preserved ecosystems.

The collaborating parties joined forces with 2,988 small, medium and large cattle ranchers to provide them with technical advice in order to transform their bare mountain lands into corridors of biodiversity, full of trees, shrubs and palms. In addition, approximately 1,600 ranchers located near key sites such as water sources or intact native forests receive payments for environmental services.